F2000A058

Seoul 2000 FISITA World Automotive Congress

June 12-15, 2000, Seoul, Korea

Design and Construction aspects of a

Zero Inertia CVT for Passenger Cars
R.M. van Druten 1)*, P.G. van Tilborg 2), P.C.J.N. Rosielle 3), M.J.W. Schouten 4)
1)

Van Doornes Transmissie, Tilburg, The Netherlands

Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, The Netherlands

2), 3), 4)

This paper concentrates on the design and construction aspects of a transmission for a mid-class passenger car with
internal combustion engine. The transmission, consisting of a Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT) with a Van
Doorne V-belt, a planetary gear set and a compact steel flywheel is used to prove the concept of mechanical torque assist.
The design goal is to obtain a proof of concept transmission with maximal efficiency, using proven transmission
technology. With the developed so called Zero Inertia CVT, the fuel economy of the car is improved by operating the
engine at its fuel optimal operating line. To achieve a good vehicle acceleration response, the flywheel assists the
powertrain mechanically.
Keywords: Transmission design, CVT, Flywheel, Transmission efficiency
optimization. A prototype driveline is being developed
and built into a passenger car. This so called "Proof of
Concept" of the ZI powertrain will be under testing at the
date of publication.

INTRODUCTION
The vehicle acceleration response to a drivers request of
today's powertrains with a continuously variable
transmission (CVT) is compromised when pursuing
maximal fuel efficiency from the internal combustion
engine. This compromise is the result of the small torque
reserve at engine operating points with high fuel
efficiency. An additional energy buffer and power assist
source is needed to abandon the compromise between
acceleration performance and fuel economy. This can be
achieved by a mechanically driven flywheel. A new
transmission concept is evolved in which a compact
flywheel system is integrated in a powertrain with CVT.
With the so called Zero Inertia (ZI) transmission there will
never be a shortage of power to the wheels at the drivers
request, not even when tracking the engine operating
points with high fuel efficiency. The functional design and
behaviour of the ZI transmission is described in [1]. The
steering and control of the driveline is described in [2].
The mechanically created power assist function has the
ability to provide a high power density at low costs and
can be constructed to have low energy losses because of
the absence of energy conversions (i.e. chemical to
electrical to mechanical). Furthermore the ZI transmission
is composed of conventional components and the flywheel
is rotating at speeds comparable to those of other
transmission components (maximum speed of 8000 rpm).
The kinematic layout of the ZI transmission is determined
amongst others by the power losses in the flywheel system
due to air drag and bearing friction. The CVT powertrain
with integrated flywheel is optimized to achieve a
minimum power loss in the total driveline. Also the
dynamics of the flywheel system and, more especially of
the rotor, the shaft and the bearings are part of the

* R.v.Druten@wfw.wtb.tue.nl

PROOF OF CONCEPT TRANSMISSION

To achieve the development of the proof of concept ZI
transmission within one year, the design uses many proven
parts of the Van Doorne V-belt CVT. As a result the
planetary gear set and the flywheel are positioned on the
backside of the transmission. According to the functional
design [1] two members of the planetary gear set each
have to be connected to either the primary or the
secondary pulley of the CVT. The flywheel has to be
connected to the third member of the planetary gear set.

Fig.1 Proof of concept transmission on a test-rig

1

torque
convertor

oil pump
& DNR

In figure 3 an optimized gear layout is shown to have

minimum power losses within the system. The
optimization procedure according to [3] is used for
different planetary gear layout designs, resulting in a basic
three element planetary gear. The planetary gear speeds
are both reduced from primary and secondary side with a
reduction step of approximately 0.3.

design
space

ENGINE
1.6 L

1
3
2

final
reduction
gear

flywheel
V-belt

Fig.2 Conventional CVT layout with to be connected

flywheel
In Figure 2 the layout of the conventional CVT is
illustrated. The torque convertor, used for smooth
acceleration at low speeds, will be closed above 20 km/h
with a lock-up clutch. The roller-vane oil pump can be
switched either single or double sided according to the
pressure demand. The V-belt is a standard Van Doorne
30/12 type, with a ratio-coverage of 5.3. The final twostage reduction gear has a total ratio of 0.21. Within the
given design space indicated in Fig. 2 of approximately 70
mm, the flywheel including a planetary gear connecting
the shafts 1, 2 and 3 is designed.

Primary
reduction gear

Secondary
reduction gear

PLANETARY GEAR DESIGN

Fig.4 Cross section of planetary gear set

According to the functional design of the ZI transmission

[1] any type of planetary gear can be used to connect the
shafts 1, 2 and 3. For a compact construction it is
preferable to position the planetary gear in parallel with
the primary and secondary pulley so the flywheel can be
positioned close to the primary pulley in axial direction.

Figure 4 shows a cross section of the planetary gear set,

the bearings of the carrier are fitted left and right (not
shown)

primary
reduction

primary
pulley

flywheel
secundary
pulley

secondary
reduction

planetary
gear set

Fig. 5 Carrier to be driven by the secondary pulley

Figure 5 shows the carrier of the planetary gear set of
figure 4 with the planets mounted.

Fig.3 Planetary gear lay-out of ZI-CVT

2

The pair of spindle bearings was chosen because, under

pre-tension, it guarantees stiffness and has no play in
radial and axial direction. The size of the bearings is
chosen as small as possible, with respect to the life span
requirements, in order to reduce the bearing losses. To
drive the rotor, the sun gear of the planetary set is milled
directly into the shaft.

FLYWHEEL DESIGN
The flywheel design is based on an optimization to reduce
air drag and bearing losses as described in [3]. For this
application the optimization prescribes a ring shaped steel
flywheel with inertia J=0.4 [kg.m2], rotating at a
maximum speed of = 800 [Rad/s]. Such a choice
immediately eliminates common flywheel problems like
extreme stresses and the need for a vacuum system to
reduce the air drag. With these specs, a steel flywheel is
evident because of the high mass density, low cost and
good manufacturing properties.

In the ZI transmission, the flywheel will have to be able to

rotate at speeds between 0 and 800 [Rad/s] without
resonance appearing. This requires a first eigenfrequency
of the construction well above 800 [Rad/s]. In order to
meet this demand, a study has been done on the
eigenmodes and frequencies of different flywheel
constructions in which the construction is simplified to a
serial connection of three stiffness: The shaft, bearings and
hub stiffness, which will be discussed in this order.
For the analysis of the shaft stiffness, a steel shaft with
length l=170 [mm], diameter d=30 [mm] and a rotor with
Jr=0.4 [kg.m2], Jt=0.2 [kg.m2] and mass m=20 [kg] is
assumed. A second order model, as described in [4]
predicts an angular displacement of the rotor at the first,
and a vertical displacement at the second eigenfrequency
as shown in Figure 8.

Fig. 6 Steel flywheel for ZI-CVT

angular

The flywheel construction as shown in Figure 7 in cross

section can be divided into three separate parts: the shaft,
the rotor and the bearings. The shaft and rotor are built
separately to simplify the manufacturing process and are
bolted together. On the left hand a cylindrical roller
bearing is applied and on the right hand a pre-tensioned
pair of spindle bearings. In this set up the shaft is allowed
to grow thermally and all axial forces are supported by the
spindle bearing.

translational

Fig.8 First and second eigenfrequency of flywheel shaft

From the eye of the rotor, the two eigenfrequencies can be
translated into an angular stiffness k, shaft, and a radial
stiffness kr, shaft. With this knowledge the best position of
the rotor on the shaft is not obvious. In Figure 9 the first
two eigenfrequencies are plotted as a function of the
distance, a, between the right bearing and the rotor.

flywheel

roller
bearing

a.

influence of flywheelposition on the first two eigenfrequencys

b.

shaft

spindle
bearings

a [mm]
Sensitivity of the first eigenfrequency for changes of a

Fig.9 Influence of flywheel position to the first and second

eigenfrequency of the flywheel shaft.
Figure 9 shows that the first eigenfrequency is the highest
when the rotor is positioned in the middle of the shaft.
Due to the limited available space, the flywheel could not

Fig.7 Cross section of flywheel, shaft and bearings

be moved to the middle of the shaft, but is positioned near

the right bearing as shown in Figure 7.

membrane

Considering the shaft as rigid and the bearings as flexible,

one can also distinguish an angular stiffness k,bear, and a
radial stiffness kr,bear, caused by the bearing stiffness. For
this particular construction these are defined by:

k ,bear = k1 (l a ) 2 + k 2 a 2

(1)

k r ,bear k 2

(2)

rod

and
spindle
bearings

With k1 and k2 the radial stiffness of the left and right

bearing. As the hub of this flywheel is relatively thin, it
has a non-negligible contribution to the first (angular)
eigenfrequency. A FEM analysis calculated for the first
two eigenfrequencies: 1=2110 [Rad/s] and 2=4120
[Rad/s].

Fig.11 Spindle bearing, radial supported by a membrane

and axial supported by a rod.
To avoid noise production by the membrane, the pair of
spindle bearings is set in a o-configuration to provide
angular stiffness to the center of the membrane [4]. Figure
12 shows the first eigenmode of the membrane.

Fig.10 First and second eigenmode of the flywheel hub

The angular stiffness of the hub can then be approximated
by:

k ,hub = 12 J t

(3)
Fig.12 Membrane designed using FEM analysis

Having analyzed the three components separately the total

angular stiffness k,tot is defined by:

1
k ,tot

1
k ,shaft

1
k ,bear

1
k ,hub

To lubricate the gears and bearings a lubrication path is

designed which is fed by the oil channel in the rod. From
this part, the oil will be rotated outwards.

(4)

TRANSMISSION HOUSING DESIGN

For the construction of flywheel, hub and bearings as

shown in Figure 7, the first eigenfrequency is 1100
[Rad/s].

For the Proof of Concept ZI-CVT design it is chosen to

have a modular construction in which the transmission
could be used with or without planetary gear and flywheel.
To accomplish this, the assembly is made with two subassemblies; a flywheel housing in which the planetary
gear set and secondary gear are fixed in axial direction and
the flywheel itself with spindle bearings and membrane.
Figure 13 shows the two sub-assemblies who can be
mounted and removed easily without re-building the
standard CVT. This makes it possible to investigate the

To support the flywheel construction, the bearing on the

left is mounted directly into the transmission housing. The
spindle bearing is connected to this housing in radial
direction by a steel membrane and in axial direction by a
steel rod through the flywheel shaft, as shown in Figure 11.
In this way the flywheel has a lightweight, stiff support in
both directions.

functioning of the added assemblies separately

maintaining the standard CVT behaviour as a reference.
Primary
pulley

TEST-RIG & CAR IMPLEMENTATION

At first the Proof of Concept ZI transmission is tested
separately (without internal combustion engine), on a testrig. The tests comprise the functioning of the mechanical
torque assist, the efficiency of the transmission and the
functioning and optimization of the CVT control and
driveline management. The second test program comprises
the driveability aspects of the ZI-CVT in a mid-class
passenger car with 1.6 L engine. Before testing the
transmission on the test-rig, the ZI-CVT was built into the
car to check the total assembly. In Figure 15 the engine
compartment of the test-car is shown with built in CVT
and flywheel housing.

Flywheel
housing

CVT housing

CVT

Planetary gear
assembly

Flywheel
assembly

Fig.13 Modular assembly of planetary gear set and

flywheel to the CVT
When the flywheel assembly is mounted, the membrane
covers the flywheel housing. In Figure 14 it is seen that
the flywheel shaft is parallel but not in between the
primary and secondary shaft.

Secondary
shaft

1.6 L engine

Flywheel shaft

Flywheel
housing

Fig.15 Engine compartment of the VW Bora test-car with

built in ZI-CVT

Primary shaft
Fig.14 3D view of primary, secondary and flywheel shaft

CONCLUSION

The flywheel rotates in its housing under ambient air

pressure. A vacuum pump and a seal to reduce the air
density within the housing are taken into consideration. As
a result of the low flywheel operation speed (5000 rpm
driving at 120 km/h), the decrease in air friction power
loss is less than the increase in power loss due to the
vacuum pump and the seal. For safety, a ring is mounted
around the flywheel hub to secure bearing functioning of
the flywheel in case the spindle bearings would fail. Due
to the low energy in the flywheel, 1/14th compared to the
car energy, minimal safety precautions are needed to avoid
that the flywheel could damage the housing.

According to the design objective a proof of concept

transmission with mechanical torque assist, called Zero
Inertia CVT, is built and under testing. The low speed
operated steel flywheel, driven through a planetary gear by
the primary and secondary pulley of a conventional CVT,
assists the engine up to 40 kW when needed. Proven, low
cost transmission technology is used to upgrade the CVT
design (only gears, bearings and a steel rotor). The test
results, regarding the functionality and the efficiency of
the transmission to be obtained before the congress date,
will be presented at the congress.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This study is part of EcoDrive which is a joint project of
Van Doorne's Transmissie (VDT), Netherlands
Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) and
the Eindhoven University of Technology (TUE). The
project is subsidized by the Dutch governmental program
E.E.T. (Economy, Ecology and Technology).

REFERENCES
[1] Van Druten, R.M., and Vroemen, B.G. "Design of a
Powertrain for Optimal Performance and Fuel
Economy using a CVT and a Flywheel, CVT99
Congress, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, 1999
[2] Serrarens, A.F.A., and Veldpaus, F.E. Powertrain
Control of a Flywheel Assisted Driveline with CVT,
CVT99 Congress, Eindhoven, The Netherlands,
1999.
[3] Van Druten, R.M., and Kok, D.B., Design
Optimization of a Compact Flywheel System for
Passenger Cars, VDI Berichte 1459, Munich, 1999.
[4] Van Tilborg, P.G., "Ontwerp van een vliegwielunit
voor een hybride aandrijflijn in een personenvoertuig,
internal report TUE, Eindhoven, The Netherlands,
1999.